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Classical music & opera

  • Woman in headphones watching video on laptop while sitting at cozy cafe near window<br>Woman watching video on laptop while sitting at cozy cafe near window. High quality photo

    Music can lift mood, foster community and even rewire brains – but does it need to have a purpose?

  • ‘We try for perfection’: the Black Dyke Brass Band practise at their historic band room in Queensbury, West Yorkshire.

    ‘My players are Olympians’: meet Bradford legends the Black Dyke Brass Band

    They’re amateur musicians who have played the Proms and Glastonbury – and won Oscar and Grammy nominations. But community is always at the heart of their mission
  • Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conducted by Andrew Manze at Llandaff Cathedral, Cardiff, Wales, UK<br>Pictured: The orchestra and choir, during the performance. Thursday 10 April 2025 Re: Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conducted by Andrew Manze at Llandaff Cathedral, Cardiff, Wales, UK.

    Review
    Missa Solemnis – glorious and memorable Beethoven

    The BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the National Chorus of Wales and the solo quartet made the complex and demanding great mass soar
  • Zimerman with violinist Maria Nowak, viola player Katarzyna Budnik and cellist Yuya Okamoto.

    Album review
    Brahms: Piano Quartets Nos 2 and 3 – high-class chamber music with a star team player

  • Sonya Bach , publicity image from Rubicon Classics

    Album review
    Bartók: Piano Works – Sonya Bach guides us from romantic roots to expressionist power

  • ‘Frozen in a neurological winter’ … Clemency Burton-Hill.

    TV review
    My Brain: After the Rupture – a fierce mantra for us all to live by

  • Musicians of the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective rehearsing at Wigmore Hall in London

    News
    Arts Council England defends support of classical music amid loss of trust

Live reviews

  • Laser-intense timbre … Yuki Deai plays the shō conducted by Kazuki Yamada at the CBSO Centre, Birmingham.

    BCMG/Yamada review – flutter tonguing, fragrant dissonances and frogs

  • Hypnotic force … BPO conducted by Joanna MacGregor with soloists Joseph Havlat and Cynthia Millar

    Brighton Philharmonic/MacGregor review – compelling Messiaen played with panache

  • A conductor wields a baton in front of an orchestra looking at sheet music

    BBC Symphony Orchestra/Oramo review – Carwithen comes in from the cold

  • Nicky Spence as Peter Grimes.

    The week in classical: Peter Grimes; Parsifal; Yunchan Lim – review

Loads more stories and moves focus to first new story.

Album reviews

  • Malcolm Martineau

    Ravel: Complete Songs album review – Martineau’s survey is full of treats

  • Kristine Opolais and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Andris Nelsons.

    Shostakovich: Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk album review – controversial opera’s drama is dulled

  • Head and shoulders shot of Errollyn Wallen.

    Errollyn Wallen: Orchestral Works album review – momentum and drive from the Master of the King’s Music

  • Composer Florence Price.

    Dvořák and Price String Quintets album review – a pairing of passion and sparkle

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People

  • Simon Rattle looking to camera, holding up a baton in front of his face

    At home with Simon Rattle: ‘There are still things I feel are beyond me’

  • Max Richter, at his studios in his home in Oxfordshire

    Q&A
    Max Richter: ‘I’m a low-key raver! I love all kinds of music’

  • ‘Creating a kind of magic’ … BBC Young Musician 2024 winner Ryan Wang.

    News
    BBC Young Musician competition crowns pianist Ryan Wang

  • Roderick Williams sitting on a bench.

    Q&A
    Baritone Roderick Williams: ‘I once heard a singer at a party say: “No peanuts. I’m singing in three days!”’

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Guides

  • 1216 Portrait of Ethel Smyth<br>PBBHMT 1216 Portrait of Ethel Smyth

    Know the score
    Without Ethel Smyth and classical music's forgotten women, we only tell half the story

    Leah Broad
  • From left: The Tempest, The Minotaur, L’amour de loin, Hamlet

    The best classical music works of the 21st century

  • A guide to contemporary classical music

  • Fireworks light the sky above the Brandenburg Gate shortly after midnight in Berlin, Friday, Jan. 1, 2016. Hundred of thousands of people gathered for the New Year celebrations, welcoming the new year 2016 at the area around the Brandenburg Gate in the capital of Germany. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

    A musical tour of Europe
    Stephen Moss's guide to the music of Europe's great cities: Berlin

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